We are all familiar with the Palanca Awards for Literature and the National Artist conferment—both prestigious recognitions for those in its respective fields. But until recently, there has never been a national award specifically for architecture and design.

This has all changed with the country’s first Haligi ng Dangal, an award conferred upon completed works in architecture and its allied professions by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts or NCCA. “We envisioned the Haligi ng Dangal to recognize and motivate recent works…that express the Filipino spirit,” explains Arch. Gerard Lico, consulting architect of the NCCA and project director of Haligi ng Dangal. “Hopefully through this award, our new generation of designers will realize the wealth of our local aesthetics, designs, techniques, and practices and develop new ways of incorporating them into contemporary design.”

Since its open call for nominations last year, the NCCA received entries of architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design projects from all over the country. After deliberations between judges Architects Danilo Silvestre, Rogelio Caringal, and Maria Cristina Turalba, Larch. Susan Aquino-Ong, IDr. Rachelle Medina, and Dr. Patrick Flores, the Haligi ng Dangal awards were conferred to the honorees last June 17, 2017 at the Ayuntamiento de Manila.

In an industry inundated with foreign-designed buildings with Filipino “architects of record” (mostly just to sign local building permits), and with young creatives looking at international examples as design pegs, Haligi ng Dangal will encourage our professionals to design Filipino, and build Filipino. “As there is an increasing awareness of the importance of good design in our lives and in Philippine society, recognition for the professions that contribute to this is very much overdue…Haligi ng Dangal hopes to change that," stresses Lico. "The future of Filipino design is bright, and we, Filipinos should recognize, and contribute to that.” Check out the roster of this year's honorees below: